Career Paths

Christine
Crumbley

Coming to a close

As I write this blog entry, I reflect on all the things that have happened over the last year.  I got approval to defend my thesis, then successfully defended said thesis in March. I started looking for potential postdoc positions last year, then went on interviews in April. The interviews were...


Wenny
Lin

Eight reasons to network

Many scientists cringe at the suggestion of having to network. Some are uncomfortable with the idea of networking because they feel that they have to be fake or sleazy. Networking can certainly induce anxiety among introverts and extroverts alike because they must engage complete strangers in forced...


Maida
Taylor

Truth or Dare: How to Commit Professional Suicide

In the March issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a premiere journal in my field, I read a report on publication puffery --  “Unverifiable and Erroneous Publications Reported by Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Applicants” by Simmons et al.The abstract summarizes the findings:


Maida
Taylor

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (PART I)

Mergers and acquisitions are rampant in the pharmaceutical industry.  As companies consolidate and reorganize,   downsizing is the norm and many talented people lose their jobs.  Some will take early retirements.  Some may  take a break if they get  severance.  But...


Clement
Weinberger

La Défense - Onward and upward

Speaking of milestones - the oral PhD defense is one of them - and regardless of your project management skills, it’s one deadline that is likely to go wooshing by you several times. Too many variables for the best of statisticians to account for and too many to construct a research protocol witho...


Liang
Zhang

Tips on networking outside of academia

One of the best ways to land a new job is through personal contacts.  As a scientist in academia, you have many opportunities to forge relationships within academia through seminars, conferences and more.  However, if you are interested in learning more about career opportunities outside o...


Kate
Sleeth

The National Postdoctoral Association Meeting 2012

As I have previously mentioned, I am an individual member of the National Postdoctoral Association ( https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/ ), and I recently attended my third annual NPA meeting in San Francisco.  This year marked the 10th annual meeting and was wonderful due to the attention to deta...


Meghan
Mott

Alternative Careers for Science PhDs: Part III – Science Policy

Postdocs have few years to identify career goals, strengthen CVs, and construct a professional network, all while working full time in the lab. Given the current situation in academia, most of us will end up in what used to be considered alternative careers. There is a long list of non-academic care...


Clement
Weinberger

What’s in a word?

Think about the last publication manuscript that you submitted on a journal website. You entered the type of article, title, author information, abstract and the manuscript files. Then there’s the other stuff that took longer than it should to figure out. I’m talking about the “names of four p...


Christine
Crumbley

Going to a Conference

I recently attended one of the largest conferences in my field, the Keystone meeting on NR in Whistler, British Columbia. The venue was gorgeous, there was even snowfall on the last night. In our group, the rule for conference attendance is that you can go if you have interesting data to present. Th...